Supreme Court adjourns case challenging scarcity of new Naira notes to Feb 22

The suit filed by state governments of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara to challenge the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the Supreme Court has been adjourned till Wednesday February 22, 2023 for hearing of the consolidated suits by 10 states.

At the hearing on Wednesday a retinue of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, other lawyers and the governors of Kaduna and Kogi states, Nasir El-Rufai and Yahaya Bello, were at the court for the hearing of the case.
At the last hearing, the Court ordered government to suspend the implementation of the February 10 deadline of the CBN from making the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes legal tender.

However, despite Supreme court’s intervention the Apex bank had declared that they ceased to be legal tender in Nigeria as declared.

The declaration was made by the Branch Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza while briefing Journalists on Monday at the CBN, branch in Bauchi.Recall that Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Yahaya Bello (Kogi) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) dragged the Federal government before the Supreme Court.

The states had sought for a declaration that the Demonetization Policy of the Federation being currently carried out by the CBN under the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari is not in compliance with the extant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 and actual laws on the subject.

They also asked the court to make a declaration that the three-month notice given by the FGN and the CBN under the directive of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the expiration of which will render the old bank notes inadmissible as legal tender, is in gross violation of the provisions of Section 20(3) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 which specifies that reasonable notice must be given before such a policy and that the limit cannot be outside that provided under Section Section 22(1) of the CBN Act 2007.
The Zamfara, Kogi and Kaduna states had instituted the suit against the Federal Government and the CBN.

Other states, namely Niger, Kano, Ondo, Ekiti, had also applied to be joined in the suit against the CBN and the Federal Government.

Court proceedings began with Justice John Okoro leading a seven-man panel.

He said the court should not lose sight of the case and its intention as it affects the suffering of Nigerians.

Lagos State, through its Attorney General, Moyosore Onigbanjo, also applied, seeking to be joined in the suit.

Bayelsa State, led by Damian Dodo, has also applied to be joined in the suit as a respondent. Similarly, Edo State applied to be joined as a respondent.